John is Matt's big in the fraternity. John is actually from the same town as Matt so that's sort of cute how that worked out. He was Matt's best man and he asked Matt to be his best man in his wedding. John is a really cool guy. He does all of this crazy adventure stuff. He travels all over the world. And even at the end of the day he is a really wonderful human being. If he ever writes a book about his life, it will be a best seller for sure. John also met his perfect mate, Shana (cool name, huh?). Now to be fair, I don't really know John or Shana that well, but they are one of those couples that you just have to watch them interact for a little while and know that they're perfect for each other. They also have Matt's highest seal of approval, and he's a pretty good judge of character so when I heard they were getting married I was pretty excited for them.
John & Matt at our wedding (May 2011)
Even if Matt hadn't been asked to be the best man, as long as we were invited there would have been no doubt that we were going to attend. Even better, it was going to be in beautiful Silverton Colorado. I've been to Denver and Colorado Springs several times, but have never been to Southwest Colorado. Matt spent many family trips during his childhood in that area so I could tell he was really excited to show me around.
In order to conserve some vacation time, but still get the most out of our trip we took a late flight out of OKC to Durango (about 50 miles from Silverton) on Wednesday night. We stayed in the "Siesta Motel". I was a little nervous about the word "motel" because when I worked for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board doing town hall meetings in tiny towns in Oklahoma, we stayed in some shady places that may have scarred me for life. However, the price was right and the reviews were good so we went for it.
It was nice enough and clean so it worked just fine for us. Really just a place to lay your head as your exploring the beauty that is Colorado!
We went to the Carver Brewing Company in Durango for breakfast. Matt may have had a beer with breakfast... it was an Oatmeal stout. So that's like breakfast, right?
One thing that is great about Colorado is that they seem to take a lot of pride in fresh local ingredients. Where have you been lately that the fruit they offer looks like that? Usually you get a syrupy fruit cocktail that really isn't that healthy. Not this place. Yum!
Don't worry, you can still get unhealthy stuff (Matt's meal)
Several times.
We decided to take a day trip along a very windy mountain road (I could see my impending doom just over the edge. Yikes).
This is the view of Silverton as you're coming in.
They have a train you can take from Durango to Silverton. It's sort of an all day affair and it's a little pricey to we opted out. But we did catch some pictures as it arrived in town.
I have no idea who these people are that Matt took a picture of...
There was this really neat store where this woman sold woven blankets and capes and jackets. I almost bought one. Especially after she told us how much work it took. I couldn't really picture myself in a woven cape though so I decided not to buy one. I just deleted the photos I took because I realized that I promised her that I wouldn't put them on the internet. If you're interested you can look at some information here.
We went on the Old Hundred mining tour and also toured the Mayflower Mill separately. .
We had to wear some gear for the mining tour. I don't know if this is really a good look for me.
Then we went to Ouray which was about 24 miles from Silverton. They call it the "Switzerland of America". They had a neat trail you walked down to see a waterfall. We climbed down to see it at the bottom.
I've never been much of a rule follower.
Then we headed back to Durango and had a nice dinner at the Steamworks brewery. It was deeeeelicious!
Friday morning it was time for us to run some errands and go to Silverton for the rehearsal.
On our way we stopped at a Honeyville place because they advertised Honey Wine. It wasn't very good, but the experience itself was really neat! Bees!
We got to the lodge and were ready to get to work. Look at how cute our room was. The entire wedding party and the family stayed in one big lodge out far away from any sort of cell phone reception. I still have no idea how they found that place but it was really neat.
I decided to make sure I got some shots of the rehearsal dinner. It's sort of a thing I do for weddings that we are a part of. I mean, who wants to pay a photographer for such a casual event? However, it is still special and it's nice to have some shots so I try to provide that for our friends. Which reminds me that I really need to send Marrik the disk of the shots I took of hers... in September.
And of course we had to get a shot while enjoying the incredible views.
The wedding itself was gorgeous. So much thought and creativity really came to life.
We also had a nice time at the reception under the stars. We danced and they even played our song "Feet Don't Touch the Ground" (probably not knowing that was our song). We hiked around for a bit the next morning and then headed back to OK.
On the plane I felt like God was saying, you just THOUGHT I was amazing down in Colorado, check this out.
We had such a nice trip and we were so glad to be part of the wedding for two very special people. We are also very excited to spend an entire weekend at home. A vacation from vacation.
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